


In These Final Days of Summer

by littlebitlexie



Category: Campaign (Podcast), Campaign: Skyjacks (Podcast)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:15:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25826509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlebitlexie/pseuds/littlebitlexie
Summary: Travis remembers a summer day from long ago. One William spent with Margaret.
Relationships: William/Margaret
Comments: 11
Kudos: 15





	In These Final Days of Summer

Memories had a way of slipping away with the centuries. And Travis never knew what he was forgetting until it was already gone. 

During one of thousands of transformations back into his human body, he realized he couldn’t remember the feel of her hand in his. When he heard a group of drunk airiners strike up a chorus of her favorite song, he realized he couldn’t recall the sound of her voice. And it was with a painful stab in his heart that he realized late one night he could no longer picture her face. Each fell through his fingers with the force of a river’s current.

But as he stands on the precipice of the temple, watching this figure move with a familiar grace, it all comes flooding back in an instant. Her name falls from his lips like a quiet prayer as time compresses, bringing him back to that forest from so long ago. She turns and it seems ridiculous that he could ever forget her when it felt as though he could trace every inch of her skin from memory. 

“Margaret.” 

**

“William!” The call surprises a pair of rabbits out of their hiding spot under a shrub and sends them scurrying across the clearing. Her approach until then had been silent, covered by the birds and the wind. But now, William turns to catch Margaret breaking through the tree line, branches fighting her the whole way. She is so beautiful, even with mud on her feet and leaves stuck in her hair, and he wants to run to her and take her by the waist and tell her that it didn’t matter what sights the forest has to offer because it could never compare to her. 

Instead, her gives a cheeky smile and says, “Did you get lost?” The softness of his tone gives him away. 

“No,” she says, rolling her eyes. From behind her back, she pulls a bundle of wildflowers. “I got distracted. Last bloom of the season, I think.” 

In a moment, she is by his side, pulling out the best flowers to thread through his hair. “I was worried you had finally given up on me,” he says. Her gaze holds steady on her work, which gives him free reign to stare at her smile as it creeps across her face like a newly lite fire coming to life in a hearth. 

“I couldn’t if I wanted to,” she answers. Her eyes sink down to meet his and her breath hitches just a little, the smallest deviation from her normal pattern. She always tries to hide it and he catches it every time. “And I definitely don’t want to.” 

They are wasting no more time now. Their lips meet, moving like a dance they have performed over lifetimes. Soon, the flowers in his hair are being jostled out of place and the flowers on the ground are being pressed under their weight. 

Once, William tried to put a name to the feeling that rose up in him and around them whenever he was with Margaret. He never knew true love, so he had nothing to compare against. And yet, _love_ seemed too small a word. Love was something any regular shopkeeper or traveler could hold in their heart, to think fondly on when wanted but to put away when not needed. It was a choice they made and one they could throw away. But William and Margaret were different. They knew from even that first moment together what it meant. They were given something so powerful and unique, it just may be the reason for the lives they’re living. The best word he was ever able to come up with before he stopped trying was _inevitable._

As they lay in the grass, settling heartbeats pressed against each other, William watches the clouds float along the too-blue sky, hiding the harshest of the sun’s light. “Last beautiful day of the season, I think,” he says, chin brushing against the top of her head as he talks. 

“Autumn will have beautiful days too.” Her voice is quiet, like she could be speaking through a dream. 

“Not the same as summer.” 

“I think-” She accents her words with soft pokes to his chest. “If it were summer all the time, you’d get bored. You need times when it’s gone so it can be appreciated more when it’s here.”

But _here_ means enjoying a warm breeze on his skin and the soft tickle of her finger which has now taken to tracing meaningless patterns on his shoulder. Why would he ever want to be anywhere else? 

Margaret lifts up her head as though she read his mind. And once she’s looking at his face, William knows she can read every emotion on it. “The best thing about summer-” she says, mouth carefully forming around deliberate words, “-is that even when it’s over, you can always trust that it will come back again.”

He hums, because it seems like the best answer, and twirls a strand of her hair around his fingers as he looks back at the sky.

**

“Excuse me?” Travis is pulled out of the memory with the fresh pain of a wound that never really healed. As he tries to ground himself back in this reality, the woman continues. “I’m afraid I’m at a disadvantage. You seem to know me, but I’ve never met you before.” 

“Sorry, I thought you were someone else,” Travis answers. Sadness creeps into the edge of his words and he starts to turn away, sure it is creeping into the edge of his expression as well. 

But she stops him with: “You thought I was someone else named Margaret?” And he turns to take in again this nearly-perfect clone. He could now remember everything about her, because she was fully formed in front of him. From the way the light played with her hair as it fell over her shoulders to the way her feet fell in a pattern he could practically predict. 

Everything except the eyes. Because her eyes did not light up with joy when she saw him. They didn't recognize him at all.


End file.
